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Wood (song)

"Wood" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl (2025). She wrote and produced it with Max Martin and Shellback. A 1960s Motown-inspired song, "Wood" incorporates a combination of disco, dance, funk, soul, and synth-pop styles. Its instrumentation features a guitar riff and a prominent horn arrangement. Lyrically, "Wood" contains sexual innuendos to describe a male lover's genitals, and makes references to superstition. The song was criticized for its lyrics.

Background
The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift created her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, to reflect on her triumphant state of mind amidst the success of the Eras Tour and her relationship with the football player Travis Kelce in 2024. Swift announced the album during the August 13, 2025, episode of Travis and Jason Kelce's podcast New Heights; "Wood" was revealed as the ninth track. The album was released on October 3, 2025, via Republic Records. ==Composition==
Composition
"Wood" incorporates disco, synth-pop, funk-pop, synth-funk, pop soul, and dance, with a rhythm and blues chorus. The arrangement includes flugelhorn, cor anglais, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, cello, Clavinet, drums, electric guitar and flute. Some critics compared the song's guitar riff to that of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5. The song centers around two main themes. The first references Western cultural associations of luck, including the practice of "knocking on wood", a tradition to avert misfortune, and the superstition that seeing a black cat is an omen of bad luck. By the chorus, Swift declares that she doesn't need to rely on superstitions to bring her love. The second uses metaphors to allude to a male lover's penis, which she compares to a Redwood tree, a magic wand and a hard rock. The line "new heights of manhood" references Kelce's podcast, New Heights. Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Swift stated that she had originally intended for the song to be a more "innocent", "throwback kind of timeless-sounding song" about superstitions, but acknowledged that the lyrics had become increasingly racier and more sexual during the songwriting process. ==Critical reception==
Critical reception
"Wood" was criticized for its lyrics. India Block of The Standard felt that it could be confused for a track from "a parody album hallucinated by some porn-addled AI". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian said the song's "laid-back take on disco recalls not the sweaty hedonism of the dancefloor but the late 70s moment where four-to-floor rhythms and chicken-scratch guitar temporarily invaded the oeuvres of west coast singer-songwriters". Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club said the song "feels like an attempt to imitate [Swift's] friend and collaborator Sabrina Carpenter", highlighting how it "borrows heavily from Carpenter's cheeky-sexy shtick, laden with puns and innuendo spun out of superstitions", but felt it was "far less charming and convincing than Carpenter's work". Pitchfork Anna Gaca felt the song had the "spiritual energy of bachelorette-party penis décor". Paste listed it as one of the worst songs of 2025. A more positive review came from Tom Breihan of Stereogum, who opined that the song exemplified Swift's ability to translate "unhinged" sentiments into pop. == Personnel ==
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of The Life of a Showgirl. Studios • Produced at MXM Studios and Shellback Studios, Stockholm • Recorded at Shellback Studios, Stockholm • Violins recorded and engineered at IMRSV Studios, Stockholm • Strings and horns recorded and edited at Studio 112, Jonstorp • Mixed at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach • Mastered at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, New Jersey Personnel • Taylor Swift – lead vocals, songwriting, production • Max Martin – production, songwriting, piano, keyboards, recording • Shellback – production, songwriting, bass, drums, guitar, percussion, recording • Stefan Petersson – bass • Erik Arvinder – violin, recording, engineering • Conny Lindgren – violin • Daniella Bonfiglioli – violin • Fredrik Syberg – violin • Lola Torrente – violin • Matthias Johansson – violin • David Bukovinsky – cello • Tomas Jonsson – flute, baritone saxophone • Wojtek Goral – flute, baritone saxophone • Janne Bjerger – flugelhorn • Magnus Johansson – flugelhorn • Peter Noos Johansson – trombone • Andreas Andersson – bass clarinet, alto flute, horn arrangements • Helena Stjernstrom – English horn • Magnus Sjölander – percussion • Miko Rezler – percussion • Stefan Wingefors – clavinet • Thomas Helten – clavinet • Mattias Bylund – Rhodes piano, vibraphone, string and horn arrangements, engineering, digital editing • Johan Randén – electric guitar • Henrik Langemyr – strings copyist • Lasse Mårtén – recording, engineering • Willem Bleeker – recording, engineering • Serban Ghenea – mixing • Bryce Bordone – assistant mixing • Randy Merrill – mastering == Charts ==
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